As I sit at my computer to write this, I am watching the second snowfall of the season. Normally the change in the weather is exciting. Now, it just makes me long for summer and all the newfound possibilities for fun with my llama. Used to be, each summer and fall was filled with llama shows, a few assisted living center visits, and the local Christmas parade. Now I have something else to add to my list of good times with my best llama friend. You see, this time last year I would have been lamenting the fact that though I had the basic knowledge to make llama pack trips possible, I lacked the confidence needed to actually get out there and go for it. Well, that is just not true anymore.

This is where the story begins.

I have had llamas in my life for the past 10 years. Though I have experienced a few sad times, I would not trade my life with my llama family for those pre - llama days. Along the way, I have made many priceless friends. One of them I consider my mentor, and she is Ellen Goldsmith. She has shared so much with me regarding the performance end of llama shows, that the only classes I ever show in are public relations, obstacle, and of course pack. They seem to be the best fun, and after looking at my furry herd with a wiser eye, I realized that with a couple of exceptions, most of my llamas were built for fun and not for prancing around in halter classes! Along the way, I decided to get involved with the Pack Llama Trial Association, as I have one llama, Secret that seemed to not mind the whole wearing the pack thing. As a matter of fact, he much prefers parades, hikes, community service, and the occasional assisted living center visit. After his completing his basic pack llama status, I was as they say, "hooked". I could think of no better way to spend my time, than enjoying the great outdoors with my best llama buddy. I looked forward to each pack trial with much anticipation. Secret soon finished his advanced pack llama certification. During the past few LANA expos, I sat in every class that had something to offer in regards to hiking and camping with my llama. This past expo, I got to sit and listen to Rudy Stauffer, and hung on every word. Both Elaine Partlow, and Mike Thompson were a wealth of information too, and I was beginning to feel like I was competent enough to actually go for a hike and (gasp) camp out over night.

As Ellen is an avid backpacker, we would have many conversations regarding packing and camping with llamas. One day the beginning of this past July, she called me and suggested we quit all the talk, and actually hike. As I mentioned, Ellen has had lots of experience backpacking, and really knows what kind of gear to take, and what to leave behind. She gave me a list of items to bring, and would weed through my stuff at her house, eliminating anything un-necessary. She even explained the 'panty-liner principle'. Suffice to say, with a few panty liners in your pack, us ladies can make one pair of undies last a few days! We decided to bring a pound of pelleted feed per llama per day. As for water, we bring at least 3 liters of water per person, and at least 2 gallon bottles of water for the llamas on the trail. I bought an easy to use water filtration device for replenishing our water supply on the trail, and in some instances, we have used the chlorine tablets to render lake or stream water drinkable. Ellen put together a llama emergency kit complete with de-activated charcoal just in case the llamas ate something poisonous.

Ellen and her husband Ron have a friend, Chuck Kelly, who just happens to volunteer with trail maintenance on the Tahoe Rim Trail. As a matter of fact, his peers on the trail maintenance crew chose Chuck as volunteer of the year. After talking with Chuck, and consulting the maps, Ellen said she had figured out a way we could hike the entire trail, a total of 165 miles, around the Lake Tahoe area. She explained the first segment of the trail we would be hiking, the Spooner Summit to Kingsbury portion to me, and said the view from South Camp Peak was awesome. It was 12.2 miles total and did I think I was up to it? This was a very important question. In addition to dealing with asthma, 2 years ago, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. In short, FM as we call it, is a pain processing disorder - arising in the brain and spinal cord - that disrupts the ways the body perceives and communicates pain. As a result, FM patients feel intense pain when they should feel only mild discomfort, say after taking a short walk, or unloading groceries from the car. They sometimes feel pain when there is no cause. Most times the muscles in my body feel like I have just been run over with a truck. With FM, my life has changed dramatically, even though I try to do the same things I was used to doing. I have learned there are limits to what I can accomplish in a day. It sounds counter-productive, but walking every day seems to make me feel better, so I have been following my doctor's advice and try to walk at least 2 miles a day. With a bit of trepidation, and my pain medication ready I said of course I was ready to give the Tahoe Rim Trail a try, and how soon could we start?!

On July 24 our journey began. Ellen, Chuck, and I loaded the llama packs with everything we could possibly need while keeping the load on each llama under 40 pounds. I decided to use the containers that scoop able cat litter comes in to store my gear inside the panniers. These work great for everything from providing water for the llamas to drink from, to making great campstools. The only problem I have found is that they fill the panniers out so well, that at times the panniers have scraped on rocks and trees, causing tears in the material. Good old iron-on tape has fixed the holes, but my pack really looks well used now. As we put the packs on the llamas, I am sure Legend, Waddie, and Secret could feel our nervousness. With Ellen, Legend, and Waddie in the lead, Secret and I in the middle, and Chuck bringing up the rear as poop patrol, (leaving llama droppings on the trail is not polite trail manners) we struck out for our first overnight experience.

After 6 miles of hiking, we soon made it to the spot where we would spend our first night out on the trail. Did I mention the view? THE VIEW OF LAKE TAHOE TOOK MY BREATH AWAY! At that moment I realized that this was what all the talk was about. How could I have put this off for so long? We found a spot with grass to picket the llamas out on, and set up camp. Chuck then became our official camp cook. He is in charge of always bringing the pot for water boiling, and making sure we always have enough stove fuel. Chuck then explained that dinner would be served in courses. The first course is instant soup, followed by our freeze-dried meal, followed with tea and something sweet. Earlier in the week Ron,

Chuck, and Ellen used a jeep road that intersects the trail, to stash water for our camp, as this was a part of the trail with no water source. Chuck also stashed a watermelon, so after our dinner we sat on the rocks with our dessert and enjoyed the view of the sun setting over Lake Tahoe. Upon waking the next morning we were relieved to find that all the llamas were where we had left them, and none seemed the worse for wear. We packed our gear and set off for the end of the trail. I had no idea I would feel such exhilaration at the end of the hike - I made it! Though I hurt like crazy, and froze that night, I was ready for more, and couldn't wait for the next hike.

Upon arriving home, we weighed each llama, and found that each lost quite a bit of weight (we weigh the llamas before every hike), in Legend's case, about 15 pounds. This gave us quite a scare, but with research, Ellen found that this sort of weight loss was possible, and all the llamas gained the weight back over a 48-hour period. The fact that Legend will still not drink any water while on the trail bothers us, but he seems to be healthy in spite of it. The days spent not hiking, I used for shopping for hiking gear. New boots, sleeping bag, a portable stove, and a variety of those freeze dried meals amongst other things - I soon got to know the staff at the local sporting goods store on a first name basis! I also found that much of the supplies needed could also be found at the local Wal-Mart. They actually carry a large selection of freeze-dried meals.

I think my family thinks I am nuts, but my doctor is very proud of me for accepting the challenge, and not giving in to the pity party some of his patients with FM seem to enjoy. At the time of this printing, we will have achieved our goal of hiking the entire Tahoe Rim Trail. One of the high points (both figuratively and literally) was getting to the top of Relay Peak. At 10,300 feet above sea level, it is the highest point on the trail. Imagine the sight of the llamas standing there with the view of Tahoe, Donner, Boca, Stampede, and Marlette lakes and numerous mountain ranges including Lassen Peak in the distance behind them. People we meet on the trail are very surprised to see the llamas. The statement we hear the most is "now that is a sight you just don't see every day". We have had pictures of the llamas taken on the trail by people visiting from all over the world. Our past hike, we met some young tourists from Taiwan. They were so enthralled with our llamas, we just handed them the lead ropes, and they took turns holding the llamas for pictures. One family we encountered were so taken with the llamas, that they sent us the pictures they took of our llamas and us camped at Watson Lake via email.

We encountered many obstacles on the trail. One that I won't soon forget is a downed tree on a very steep portion of the trail from Barker Pass to Tahoe City. It was on the trail behind Twin Peaks. It was too large for the llamas to step over, so we all had to slide down the hill to be able to get around it, then climb back up the hill. Perhaps the scariest part of the trail has to be the bridge crossing the dam at Echo Lake. The bridge had see -through grating for the bottom, and an open 4 foot high railing with water rushing under. The llama's packs barely fit between the railings. I was holding my breath the entire time it took Secret and I to cross it, as I was afraid Secret would get to the middle and decide not to cross the thing at all. Then we found the horse crossing and realized we really didn't have to cross that bridge! Sadly, we were all so focused on getting our llamas across in a safe manner, that we didn't get any pictures of the bridge with the llamas on it. At times we have been rained upon, and we have even hiked in some early fall snow.

We have found that our llamas will not hike out of sequence. Legend first, then Waddie tied behind him, and Secret always follows them. I have tried walking with Secret in front, but he stops after a few steps and waits for the other two to pass him and he is again in his proper place in the line. Ellen's dog Sarah, walks in the middle and stops every so often to count heads and make sure her herd is all there.

For the most part everything went well. We made a couple of mistakes regarding water (make sure there are adequate sources near or on the trail) and stove fuel (make sure you bring extra, as it takes longer to boil water at higher elevations), but we learned from them. Legend, Waddie, and Secret are the first llamas to ever hike the entire Tahoe Rim Trail. Their hike will be logged, with the llama's names and the numbers 1,2, and 3 given them by the Rim Trail Association. News of their hike will be written about in the association's newsletter. There are 8 segments to the trail. In all, we will have hiked a total of 165 miles (a bit more as there were some side trips for the views in there too), camped a total of 13 nights, and hiked a total of 21 days, averaging 8.5 miles a day. Our total climb in elevation was 29,000 feet! Each llama carried an average total weight of 735 pounds during the course of our 21 days hiking. That sounds odd considering my llama only weighs 254 pounds! Would I do it again? I'm not sure - I felt pretty beat up at the end of each day, and I definitely learned my limits - 10 miles a day or 1200 feet per day- not both! I do know however, that there will be hiking and camping with my llama in my future. I consider myself fortunate to live with such beautiful country virtually in my own back yard. We were very lucky to have Ellen's husband Ron as our trail pit crew. Without him to drop us off and pick us up at the end of each segment the whole hike would not have been possible. I also have to thank my husband Bob (his motto: "Nothing dies on my watch"), for making sure all of the other llamas, alpacas, sheep, chickens, dogs, and cats were well taken care of while I was gone on my big adventure.

Ellen and I are already talking about where we would like to hike next year. Our plan is to start out with a few day hikes for conditioning in the Sierra area, with a few overnight hikes later in the season. We will be getting the word out when hiking season starts, as we want others who are interested in hiking with their llamas to be able to enjoy this experience. Now, are you ready to go?

***Be sure to visit the Photo Album for the Tahoe Rim Trail Hike at http://www.llamacrossing.com/gallery/albums.php

For more information on the Tahoe Rim Trail, write to:
Tahoe Rim Trail Association
DWR Community Non-Profit Center
948 Incline Way
Incline Village, NV 89451
Or visit http://www.tahoerimtrail.org/